Single trader caused US ‘flash crash’

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A single trader’s use of a computer trading system to sell futures contracts helped to trigger the rapid selling that led to Wall Street’s “flash crash” on May 6, wiping nearly 1,000 points from the Dow Jones Industrials Average Index in less than half an hour.

The trade was executed “extremely rapidly in just 20 minutes” on a day when market was already jittery due to concerns over the European debt crisis.

It set off waves of aggressive selling of futures contracts, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a joint report, which highlights